Royal Trux or RTX are not splitting up. Everybody got to keep their job, but one listen to “Rad Times” confirms the band had little choice in giving its new sound a new moniker. Even though we think Black Bananas would be better suited as a seminal speed-punk band name, Jennifer Hermena and the gang saw it as an 80s mash-up of bassy gogo and arena-built hair metal.
The single “Rad Times” rides an audacious cool that challenges Ariel Pink's crown of questionable taste. Black Bananas are going to need break dancers and a pyro-guy for their future tours, this much is certain. Naturally, we don't want to pigeon-hole Black Bananas as strictly “nü-Zapp-metal”, but with song titles like “Foxy Playground,” “Hot Stupid,” and “Night Walker” it hints of few more ounces of bounce.
Black Bananas' Rad Times Express IV is out January 31, 2012 on Drag City.
